Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
This is bad. This is so, so bad.
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Brewers
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m. PT
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Los Angeles, Ca.
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CF
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Gomez
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2B
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Gordon
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C
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Lucroy
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CF
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Puig
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RF
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Braun
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1B
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Gonzalez
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3B
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Ramirez
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RF
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Kemp
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LF
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Davis
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LF
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Crawford
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2B
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Weeks
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3B
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Turner
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1B
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Reynolds
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C
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Ellis
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SS
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Herrera
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SS
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Rojas
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P
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Gallardo (R)
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P
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Kershaw (L)
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Juan Uribe, who injured his right hamstring last night, is on the disabled list. Uribe said it felt the same as it did when he missed five weeks with a similar hamstring injury earlier this year; this is an enormous problem. He’s become one of the more underrated third basemen in baseball, combining league-average offense with stellar defense. Now, he’s gone, perhaps for the rest of the regular season.
There’s a few things that come of this. Justin Turner is likely the regular third baseman — he’s starting tonight — and while he’s played well, this also weakens the bench. Carlos Triunfel has been recalled to take Uribe’s roster spot, and while he’s terrible, he’s really the only option. Erisbel Arruebarrena is on the minor league disabled list. Alex Guerrero isn’t the answer for all the reasons we talked about on Friday, namely that he’s not hitting well right now and isn’t a left-side infielder, no matter how loudly people insist he is. You could, I guess, bring back Jamie Romak, but he’s not very good either, and that requires a 40-man roster move. I don’t like Triunfel any more than you do, but there’s nothing else to be done.
Also, there’s this: Hanley Ramirez was seen taking grounders at third base today. Maybe that’s something — the timing is certainly odd — and maybe it’s nothing. Personally, unless they’re certain that Uribe has no chance to make it back this year, I have a hard time seeing that switch happen in-season. It’s noted here because it’s a thing that happened, but with Ramirez obviously also hurt, it’s not something to be worried about for a while.
Oh, and Adrian Gonzalez had a bit of a sore back yesterday, and when Uribe goes on the DL, he’ll be the sixth different Dodger — joining Hyun-jin Ryu, Paul Maholm, Josh Beckett, Chris Perez, Paco Rodriguez — to go on the list in the last two weeks, plus Isotopes Jose Dominguez (shoulder) and Stephen Fife (Tommy John).
After all that: There’s still a baseball game to be played tonight. Clayton Kershaw is on the hill, and after how badly Mattingly bungled the Jamey Wright / Brandon League / J.P. Howell situation last night, there’s no better time for some vintage complete game Kershaw. For a team that’s safely in first place, there sure are suddenly a lot of issues.
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